Past Mistakes
by Chariste
Summary: Set after "The Future is Hope" paradox ending. Noel is left to protect the future's last hope but to protect the future you must protect the past. NoelxHope
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Set after "The Future is Hope" paradox ending. Noel is left to protect the future's last hope but to protect the future you must protect the past.

**Pairings:** NoelxHope

**Rating:** T (but may change to M - I'll warn you if it does)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Final Fantasy if I did I wouldn't be here righting a fanfiction, would I?

* * *

_"Noel, you're on guard duty". _  
_That one sentence would change history forever._

The city of Academia was unusually peaceful. The normal whistle of hover cars wasn't present just as the slopes gently hummed their familiar tune. One by one, the lights cast by the apartments in New Town began flickering out, allowing the darkness to creep into the sleeping city. Eventually, the only light left was being emitted from the Academy headquarters; even then, they began to dwindle. One of the remaining lights belonged to the office of the Academy's own Director - Hope Estheim. The last two days he had barely left his office, files on the new Cocoon lay scattered on his desk. Reports on all different theories and aspects concerning the creation of the new planet were forgotten as the Director sat, hunched over a single report. The gravitation cores. Hope let his head fall into his hands as he fought off the feeling of sleep crawling into his tired mind.

His assistant - no, his friend - had betrayed him.

_'Why Aylssa, what could you possibly have gained from this.'_

Hope mulled over his thoughts as he felt a comforting hand placed on his shoulder. Glancing up he met the gaze of none other than Noel Kreiss - his body guard.

"Hope, I know what Aylssa's done is hard on you, but even you need to sleep at some point".

He blinked tiredly up at Noel who was trying to stifle a yawn. Suddenly Hope felt worse, it wasn't just him that was staying here, wasting his time because he was too tired to think. Noel was too. He had promised to protect Hope until his so-called assassin was caught, and being trained as a guardian, he would do anything to protect someone. Even if it meant staying up at this ungodly hour.

Hope sighed as he stood from his desk,"Yeah, I guess you're right".

* * *

Both males simply headed out without another word. After passing by a few offices where few people were leaving and many that were beginning their day, they made it outside. Normally the quietness of the city would be relaxing to Hope, but ever since Snow appeared, he had constantly been on edge. This was his last night... alive. He shuddered at the thought, he didn't even know_ how_ he died or_ who_ killed him. How was he meant to 'stay alive' without knowing these kind of things. That was Snow for you, running off to play hero while leaving others behind. He never thought his plans through. He sighed again, only this time his companion noticed.

"Hope?"

"It's nothing, I was just thinking about... you know... Tomorrow," Hope replied, running his hand through his hair.

Noel paused mid step. "Listen Hope, nothing is going to happen tomorrow, I promise you".

Hope turned around and gazed at the other male, eyes searching for any doubt.

He didn't find any.

Before turning away, he smiled slightly and nodded his head. The rest of the walk to the apartment was left in silence.

* * *

Waking up the next morning, Noel felt determined. He wouldn't let any more of his friends die.  
From his place on the couch, Noel could see almost the whole apartment. It still surprised him, that the Director of the Academy would live in such a small place. When he'd asked Hope about it, he had just laughed and replied, "I'm no different from others, why should I live in luxury when others are barely getting by. Besides I'm hardly ever here".  
Noel smiled. Hope always thought of others, never thinking of his own wants or needs. He even went as far as giving up his life in the past, to go to the future to save Cocoon. Glancing up at the sound of a door opening, he was met with the sight of a very disheveled Hope.  
His hair stuck up at odd angles and fell into his once vibrant green eyes, now darkened and set in bruised coloured skin. Simply - he looked a mess.

Noel began to voice his concerns only to have wave it off. "I'm fine, I stayed up late to make some arrangements."

Noel didn't have to ask what 'arrangements' Hope had meant. "You'll be fine Hope."

* * *

After another half hour of getting ready, small talk and discovering the lack of anything edible in the kitchen, they headed out to pick something up on the way to the Academy down the street Noel found himself constantly on guard, so much so that his hand twitched towards his weapon every time someone even looked at Hope.

"Relax Noel, no one's going to do it here," Hope muttered under his breath.

"How can you be so sure?" Noel asked normally, the surprise of his actions being read that easily caused him to forget to lower his voice.

"There's too many people, out in the open would just hinder him, people would become panicked and he wouldn't be able to hide any evidence. Security officials would either catch him then or soon after. It's too much of a risk," Hope answered, scanning the shops nearby to find a bakery. "Here, this way."

Noel stood still for a second, watching the retreating figure of the single person that could save the world. He let out the breath he never realised he was holding.

"Not everyone's as smart as you Hope, not if they're willing to do this," he whispered before trying to catch up to said man.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hey guys, sorry I haven't been around lately, I've had a lot of problems recently, most of them family related. Anyway, i'm back! (obviously). I'm sorry if this seemed a bit short to people, it looked bigger before being posted and I don't have Microsoft anymore so I had to edit everything on here, so yeah.

About my other stories, if you've looked at my stories before you'll notice that I've deleted almost all of them, it's because I hate coming across a story I like on here and the author has no plans to continue it, and i had no plans to continue my previous stories. I've got a completely new writing style and the characters were way to OOC for my liking. I will be continuing 'An Unexpected Lead' Though, I just need to sort some of the plot out and find time to write it up.

Enough of my ramblings so congratulations if you've made it this far. Please leave a review about what you think and anyways I can improve it. thanks.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was setting. Noel never thought he would ever be so glad to see such a sight. The day was ending. The third day. Over... He glanced over at the white haired male behind the desk . His eyes drooped as he looked over the minutes from a meeting, clearly not taking it in as his eyes would flutter shut only to snap open a few seconds later. Hope had rarely slept since that day, trying to cram a lifetimes worth of work into three days. Noel shook his head slightly, a frown tugging on his lips. It annoyed the brunette how the other male would never think of his own needs; he was going to work himself to death. A thought crossed his mind.

Work himself to death...

Noel suppressed a smirk. Maybe that's what Snow meant. Hope's 'assassin' was really disguised as paperwork.

Noel shook his head to rid the thought. Now wasn't the time. Glancing at the clock he saw it was almost time for them to leave . Just as he was about to turn towards Hope the door slammed open. Noel snapped his head towards the door, weapon already in hand. Who stood in the door was not was not who Noel expected.

"Director!"

A familiar woman stood slumped against the door way, panting to regain her breath.

"Aylssa! Why are you here?" Hope exclaimed loudly, fully alert now as he stood.

She opened her mouth to explain her actions to her former boss, but before she could do so a soldier grabbed her.

"Sorry sir, she escaped during the panic", The soldier's gruff voice replied.

"Panic?" Noel raised an eyebrow.

"At the defected gate, it's activated and an unknown paradox is leaking out of it."

That caught there attention. Hope grabbed his Hawkeye and made towards the door, Noel following closely behind.

"No, wait Hope! You need to listen to me. You can't go, Caius is-"

The last of the sentence was unheard as the two males rushed towards the gate.

It wasn't hard to find the source of the panic, but it was hard to get to it. Hope found it difficult to push his way through the sea of bodies running in the opposite direction. Eventually the crowed began to thin as they reached the stairs leading to the gate. A murky black smoke was being emitted from the gate as it spun widely, causing the smoke to start creeping towards them. Slowly the smoke began to morph, twisting and turning into a human like shape before finally settling into the shape of a man. And not just any man, but an all too familiar man - Caius. His violet hair billowed around him casting an air of power he normally didn't own. No longer suspended in the air he touched down on the ground. As he landed his head was lazily raised, eyes glowing with hatred. No, they were quite literately glowing.. His crimson gaze settled on Hope as he drew his sword only to find being pushed back towards him. Turning his attention to the loud 'clang' that echoed around the deserted district, his gaze moved up from the foreign blade to it's master.

Noel glared heatedly back at him. "So it was you, after all this time it was YOU!" the last word was said loudly, hiw voice laced with betrayal.

"It is I that should be accusing you of unjust deeds, not you. You simply stood by and watched her die," Caius did not raise his voice but the venom was overwhelming. "If not for you, she would not have died."

"What are you talking about, is it Yeul? Tell me Caius what have you done!" Unlike the purple haired male, Noel's voice was practically screaming.

This only seemed to anger Caius; his already bright eyes flared up, finally drawing Noel's attention to them.

"W-what's happened to you..." Noel trailed off, voice so low it was barely a whisper.

It was exactly at this point that a low rumbling noise surrounded the district drawing Hope's attention away from the scene going on before him.

"What-"

Before he could even question the misplaced sound ice formed around Caius. Sensing the upcoming battle he jumped and gracefully flipped out of range of the sharp icicles that now occupied his space.

A loud booming voice then called out", All right, finally. I could do with a challenge!"

Hope could almost hear the smug grin in his voice. Suddenly something shot past him, heading straight towards Caius. Almost as if he could predict the figure's every movement, he dodged every attack.

"Hmph, all right, don't say I didn't warn you,. Cool 'em off!" With this a large casing of ice formed around Caius. As it began to splinter and crack, dust rose up and surrounded them all.

Hope coughed slightly as his eyes focused on to figures before him. A tall male with pale blonde hair slicked back and a considerably smaller figure with light bubblegum coloured hair pinned to the side of her head.

"Hey, watch it next time would ya," Noel's voice sounded out as he waved the dust away from his face. "You could have killed us."

"Hey, we just saved your life. Your welcome," Snow's voiced help a hint of playfulness before becoming oddly serious. "Where did he go..."

It was then the smoke cleared enough to make out the silhouette of said man.

"Ah!There," Serah cried out before shooting a few arrows of light at him. Unsurprisingly they missed him, not unlike any other attack aimed at him.

Before any of them could move, the purple haired man returned to smoke and disappeared within the gate.

"Not that I don't appreciate the help, but what's going on?" Hope's voice rang out clearly in the silence that had fallen over the district.

Snow merely glanced at Hope and sighed.

Serah seeing this of him, decided to step in. "That Caius we saw just now, he isn't the Caius from this time. He's the one from Valhalla; the one Lightning was fighting..."

Noel noticed Serah's slip,"What do you mean 'was' and how can he be here, he cant use the gates."

"I don't know the full story myself, but it had become to late, the world was going to be destroyed. You went to help Lightning and then she..." Serah's voice had begun to crack as tears formed in her eyes.

Hope just stared at her, she couldn't possibly mean that... no! Lightning was strong, she couldn't...

But she had.

Snow's voice rose up even though his eyes remained downcast. "You were too late, Caius killed her, and when you two fought him, he was defeated. It all seemed so wonderful until Etro's heart began to repair it's self. Etro herself died that day, passing all her powers onto her hearts previous owner... Caius. The timeline became so distorted that Yeul's mind became overfilled and killed her. And now Caius wants to kill you Hope so none of this would happen, you would never be there to help Serah and Noel and Academia would never have been created, so the gate to Valhalla it's self would never exist."

Hope's mind couldn't function, couldn't comprehend one thing. Lightning is dead... She couldn't be, this was all his fault if he wasn't so goddamn weak. Even Noel had to protect him the past few days. What if he got hurt too... or worse. No, he wouldn't allow that.

"You're not making any sense, Lightning's Etro's warrior! She's strong, she couldn't die! Why are you spewing all this crap!" Noel retorted back at Snow. He admired Lightning, he wouldn't believe she had... died.

At this point Serah was sobbing into her hands. Crying for the sister she had not seen in years.

Snow too even had a few tears streaming down his face."How dare you..." His voice was so low Noel barely caught it. "Just because you had a rough life doesn't mean you have the right to trample over ours!" with this Snow grabbed the front of Noel's shirt, pulling him forward to face him.

He would have done worse if it had not been for Serah grabbing him from behind.

"Stop it! Just stop it!" She cried out loudly.

Snow's eyes softened as he let go of Noel before facing Serah, embracing her to calm her down.

Noel as if realizing what he had implied apologized quickly.

After a few minutes of observing the scene Hope tentatively prodded Snow to continue."How could he possibly rewrite everything?"

"I'm not sure, that's where our information stops"

"Um... I think I could maybe help," Aylssa's voiced hesitantly as she stumbled towards them.

"Aylssa?" Hope wondered why she was here, what had happened to the soldier from before?

She held up her hand to stop Hope. "I'm not meant to exist, that's why I was helping Caius. I died many years ago, during the purge when I went to visit my friend in Bodhum," She paused before glancing at Noel and Serah,"remember that grave? Back in Bresha Ruins, the one I had dreamt about, that it was my grave? It was, during the purge, after the train had collapsed and a group of us escaped. The soldiers were looking for us so we hid in a cave near Lake Bresha, but it caved in and we all died. The only reason that I'm still here is because of a distortion caused by Etro that released the l'Cie from there crystal state... Caius told me if I help him, I could still live..."

The others stared at her speechless, what could they really say, while it was understandable that she was scared and hurt, they still couldn't condone such an act.

"She reached into her bad and retrieved a small scarlet gem and handed it to Hope. "Here, take it. It's the real artifact for this gate. Caius is planning to use his new powers to go to the past, before the pillar on Pulse was even created and to kill the Hope in that time to change the future."

Hope just stared at her searching her eyes for any form of deceit - there wasn't any. Slowly he reached out for the gem. As Aylssa placed it in his palm, he clenched his hand around it before turning around and walking towards the gate.

He could go back, he could save everyone Vanille, Fang and... Light.

He could finally prove his strength, prove his worth and protect his friends without being a burden. As he reached the gate he felt a presence next to him. Looking up his sea green eyes met a pair of sky blue ones full of concern holding a single question, 'are you sure?".

He nodded solemnly, glancing behind as he held up the gem. It began to glow as Noel and Hope were lifted into the air by the gate.

"Well looks like it's not our story anymore," Snow's voice was quiet.

Hope glanced back at them only to see a shimmering barrier preventing Snow and Serah from accessing the gate.

"Good luck, and be careful you two,"Serah said trying not to look as worried as she felt.

The both nodded before glancing back at the gate as it shone brighter, engulfing them.

Standing far away from the previous scene was Aylssa. She stared at the spot Hope once occupied. S he smiled lightly while tears seemed to flow from the pools that were her eyes. She seemed to started started to fade slowly as her time in this world drew to a close. Just when she was about to vanish completely, she whispered something, more to herself than the man that once stood next to her.

"Thank you Hope, for everything. I love you..."


End file.
